Women in charge, in Canada and abroad

Stella Rimington was recruited to join British spy service MI-5 at a cocktail party.

It was the height of the Cold War and Ms. Rimington, the wife of a diplomat, was living in India. When she jumped to field work, she first had to do the same standard test given to all male agents: Walk into a pub, approach any stranger and learn as much as you can about them. Then keep your cool when a superior officer enters and blows your cover story.

The pub that her superiors chose was a sleazy place near London’s Victoria Station and full of men of questionable character, according to a retelling of the event in Joanna Barsh’s book How Remarkable Women Lead.

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“They were leaning on the bar drinking pints in their grimy raincoats,” Ms. Rimington recalls. “I started to chat up a guy who was obviously surprised and thought my profession was something else!”

Eventually she was tapped to be head of the spy service, the first woman to hold the job.

Trailblazers such as Ms. Rimington have shown the way for scores of women over four decades. But rarely have so many women at one time risen to the very top positions of power in business and politics as in the past year.

Christine Lagarde, France’s Minister of Finance, was named head of the International Monetary Fund at a crucial time for the institution. Former ebay Inc. executive Meg Whitman was appointed chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co. Virginia Rometty was named chief executive of IBM Corp. and takes up her position on Jan. 1. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is easily the most powerful politician in Europe and her status has only grown with the continent’s sovereign debt crisis.

At home, Canada now has four sitting women premiers, the highest number since Confederation: Alison Redford leads Alberta; Christy Clark heads British Columbia; Kathy Dunderdale won a majority in Newfoundland; and Eva Aariak holds the top job in Nunavut. The number of women elected to the House of Commons jumped to 76 in last May’s federal election, a record increase of 25%.

All of these wins are hugely significant because they shatter preconceived ideas about what power looks like at the highest levels. It’s not a sea change that will necessarily lead to a flood of additional female appointments. Rather, it’s a redefining of the face of authority and influence at the top echelon of world affairs.

“In the past, the notion that the IMF could have been run by a woman would be unthinkable,” says Nan Langowitz, director of the Center for Women’s Leadership at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. “In that sense, [these appointments] break some of the stereotypes and expectations of who should be running these large institutions. And I think that’s quite exciting.”

These women claimed the corner suites and leader chairs because they deserved it and not because of any progressive social policies. Ms. Rometty, for example, has been with IBM for more than a decade, managing a crucial merger and steering a sales drive in new markets. She was a logical candidate to lead the company after having proven herself.

But women are also rising at a time male authority is being tested like never before. As global problems such as economic stability and planetary warming grow, faith in men as leaders and the myth that has supported their superiority are arguably weakening.

They can’t lead countries without racking up problematic debt. They frequently break campaign promises and earnings guidance. They continue to build war machines that kill people while a portion of their citizens struggle to feed their families.

“There is this kind of fatigue and dissatisfaction” with male leadership, says Connie Glaser, a well-known U.S. author on workplace diversity and women’s leadership. “And I hesitate to use the word ‘disgust.’ But you know, there is a sense that something is not right here and that maybe it is time to look for a different style or a different approach. That maybe the testosterone, the aggressiveness, the high risk-taking is not the only way to lead.”

Corporate North America remains a largely male-dominated world.

Research released this month by U.S.-based Catalyst Inc., a leading non-profit organization expanding opportunities for women, shows women are no further along the corporate ladder in the United States than they were six years ago. Women held 14.1% of U.S. executive officer positions in 2011, down from 14.4% the year before, while board representation was up slightly to 16.1%.

In Canada, the percentage of women holding senior officer positions has barely budged, rising to 17.7% in 2010 from 14% in 2002, Catalyst data show. Of the largest 100 companies by market capitalization listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, only one — yoga clothing retailer Lululemon — has a woman CEO.

The number of female board directors is also growing at a glacial pace. Of Canada’s FP500 companies and Crown corporations, 15% had women directors as of 2010, according to the Canadian Board Diversity Council, up from 9.8% in 2001.

“The big picture is still disappointing with so few women in c-suite roles,” says Pamela Jeffery, founder of the council. “But I think you have to look at all the progress that’s been made [internationally]. And particularly I think this year does show that there is traction now, moreso I think than in previous years.”

Separate Catalyst research shows that businesses that hire women in the boardroom for a sustained period of time perform better than those who don’t — and not just by a little.

Catalyst found that companies with three or more women directors in four or five years, on average, outperformed those with no women representation by 84% return on sales, 60% return on invested capital, and 46% return on equity.

So why don’t more corporations take the hint?

“It’s a question that mystifies me,” Catalyst chief executive Ilene Lang told CNBC this month. Still, she offers a couple of reasons. “The most important one is that overall, there is what psychologists like to call a ‘think-leader, think-male’ mentality. And we have to get past that.”

Gender-base stereotyping is embedded, often unintentionally, in the very talent management systems designed to cultivate an organization’s best talent, according to Catalyst.

Another explanation for the low numbers of women in top roles is the devotion required to the job and different perspectives on success.

Men for whom happiness is defined by career achievement won’t hesitate to make themselves available for work 24 hours a day any day of the week. Of the women that may also qualify for executive positions, many decide they’re simply not interested in giving that level of energy and time.

A number of countries have implemented gender-based quotas to help women reach power faster, particularly in politics. Some 110 countries have rules that facilitate women getting elected, including such places as Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan, The Economist notes in a 2008 piece on the subject.

Supporters argue that having more women in politics is not only fair but beneficial, the news magazine writes. “Research suggests that, at least in poorer countries, quota laws change the subjects lawmakers discuss. A law in Rwanda that defines rape and protects victims of sexual abuse got through thanks to women legislators; their male counterparts saw the subject as taboo.”

In North America, the idea of formal quotas for women in business and politics is generally rejected.

The consensus is that women can, and have been, elected and appointed on their own merits. Hilary Clinton is arguably outperforming U.S. President Barack Obama in her role as secretary of state. Indra Nooyi is doing fine as CEO of PepsiCo Inc. as is Ursula Burns at Xerox Corp.

Have they reached the top by acting like men?

Margaret Thatcher arguably did. As education minister, she became known as “Maggie Thatcher Milk Snatcher” because she abolished free milk in British schools to meet budget-cutting targets. Once in power, the former British prime minister fought a war in the Falkland Islands and took on the unions — not exactly acts that you’d associate with the kind of consensus-building and empathy that women leaders are known for.

But her willingness to court and confront unpopularity may have been part of her appeal, Tony Judt writes in his book Postwar, a history of Europe since 1945. A surprisingly broad range of hard-bitten statesmen in Europe and the United States confessed, albeit off the record, to finding Ms. Thatcher rather sexy, he writes.

“She could bully and browbeat with less mercy than any British politician since Churchill, but she also seduced.”

Bonnie Dupont, a retired Enbridge Inc. executive, says that when she was working her way through the ranks in the Alberta oil patch in the 1980s, she wore dark suits for a period of time to meet the corporate dress code.

Some might argue she learned to play a man’s game in a largely male-dominated energy sector. But she doesn’t see it that way.

“I think it’s knowing who you are professionally,” she says. “You either know who you are and know what you’re about … or you don’t.”

Ms. Dupont let her work speak for herself. Five years ago, she became the first woman president of the Calgary Petroleum Club, a private social club for executives that only admitted women 40 years after it started.

For her, this year’s high-profile female appointments are simply well-educated, experienced and mature women who are ready to lead.

“I think it’s just a natural progression,” Ms. Dupont said. “It hasn’t happened fast enough as far as I’m concerned. But it is happening. And it’s gratifying to see it.”

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